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There is a guy here in Mexico City (5000ft above sea level), and he's saying since the air is less dense than at sea level he could boost up a civic to 10 psi with our the help of anything (like SF's alch/water injection), is his true could you compesate for less dense air with boost??

could any of the turbo experts clear up this one for me??

by the way i'm awsking this for a friend that lives there, i'm only at 1600 ft above.

thanks...

 
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It all depends. you can to a certain extent. It doesnt really depend on the density factor, but also the heat factor. Since the air is less dense, the turbo has to run at a higher PSI to make the same power. But to make more psi, the turbo has to work harder. The harder it works, the hotter the intake temps will be. And the hotter the intake temps, the more likely the car will detonate.

When i drove our turbo'd celica to Colorado springs to install Andyman's kit, i went up eisenhower pass (12,000 ft above sea level) and the car ran decent. I was pushing about 10 psi without the alcohol. At about 11-12 psi the car would detonate at that altitude, when here (2900 ft) it detonates at about 10 psi.

So you can run more boost at higher altitudes, but not by much.

 
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thanks for clearing that up, so the 10 psi he says he could give a civic with out detonating he has to have something else on the car......